On Tuesday, Roger Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young award winning pitcher, and Brian McNamee, the trainer who testified about injecting Clemens with steroids, met to discuss a possible conclusion to McNamee's defamation lawsuit against Clemens. A federal judge in Brooklyn asked them to try to negotiate a settlement, and they met in his chambers.

McNamee's lawyer told the Associated Press that this was the first time the two men had been in the same room (other than for court appearances) since at least 2007. December 2007, if you'll remember, was when the Mitchell Report dropped, telling the world that Clemens used perform enhancing drugs, including human growth hormone and testosterone. McNamee, an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Yankees from 2000 to 2001, provided the information about Clemens.

Looks like Major League Baseball player Delmon Young is about to get his mouth washed out with some tolerance.

Young pleaded guilty yesterday to an aggravated harassment charge stemming from an April incident in Manhattan where he shouted an anti-Semitic slur at a group of four men and then tackled one of them to the ground, according to a release from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office.

The altercation occurred outside of the Hilton New York hotel in Midtown during the early morning hours of April 27. Young's shitty behavior has earned him 10 days of community service and enrollment in the restorative justice program at the Museum of Tolerance New York.

I was going to say something about the Ryan Braun mess, but Murray Chass already said it for me. Chass, as you should know, was with the New York Times for 39 years before taking a buyout in 2008. He has now been blogging for over three years, though I would not call it that. Chass has simply continued to write his old column, which is so far above the level of what is generally called blogging as to be a higher category altogether. In fact, it's generally higher caliber than Chass wrote at the Times, if only because he no longer seems to be held back by the paper's corporate policy.

In his column, Chass has provided a superb summation of the press's near hysterical reaction over an arbitrator's decision to throw out Matt Braun's 50-game suspension for a positive drug test. Chass takes the Daily News, the Post and the Times to task, writing:

Why was there so little support for Jorge Posada as a Hall of Fame player in this week's sports press? The most common phrase was "borderline HOFer," which, as I recall, I've even used in this space over the years. But let's say it: Posada is a Hall of Famer, though perhaps he won't make it on the first ballot. But he'll make it.

Because he deserves it. Georgie was the second best catcher in baseball for most of his career, only behind Pudge Rodriguez -- if you factor in overall value, probably behind both Pudge and Mike Piazza for several years. But what's wrong with being the third best player at your position, especially when your position is the hardest to play and the hardest to find a good player for?

Watch the video above. That, friends, is the consequence of living near the Richmond County Bank Ballpark: fireworks all the time, after every home game, according to this account by a Staten Island resident named Steve in Brick Underground.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Texas Rangers 6-2 last night to win their 11th World Series. After letting up 2 runs in the first, the Cardinals scored 6 unanswered to take the series. They were down 2-3 in the Fall Classic after losing game 5 to the Rangers. David Freese was the World Series MVP and hit the tying RBI in Game 7 with a double in the bottom of the first. Freese had hit the game-tying and walk-off RBIs in Game 6, which the Cardinals won in 11 innings. [ESPN]

Did I miss it, or has someone written tributes to the 1986 Mets that I didn't see? October 18 marks the 25th anniversary of the first game of the great 1986 World Series, and we just passed the 25th anniversary of perhaps the greatest division series ever, the one with the Houston Astros — you know, the one Tim McCarver famously called "an epic of our time … like Beowulf."

Don't people think silver anniversaries are important any more? Have the Mets' miseries this past season — for the past few seasons, for that matter — drowned out memories of the one of the greatest teams and greatest seasons in baseball history?

I have a theory: The Mets' fans get a pang when they remember the '86 team because it was a dynasty that never happened.

C.C. or C.J.? Does it come down to that for the Yankees? We still don't know who's going to the World Series, but the internet is abuzz with speculation about whether the Yankees are going to try to re-sign C.C. Sabathia or Texas Rangers left-handed ace C.J. Wilson — or both.

C.C. is getting $23 million a year for the next four years, and the Rangers had a $91 million payroll last year. Does anyone seriously think they're going to take on a grossly overweight 31-year old for, what, $27 or $28 million a year for three or four seasons?

It's not my money, so I don't care how the Yankees spend it, but I do care how it affects the team. And not only can't Texas afford to pay that kind of money, I don't think anyone else can, either. Well, the Yankees could, but why should they?

Our favorite scene is when the actor playing the Brad Pitt role — or, rather, in this scenario the Brian Cashman role — is thinking of new ways to spend money: "Overpay for hometown heroes," he says and the camera cuts to footage of Derek Jeter jumping up and down.

The video is more than a picture-perfect turnaround of the movie. It's a virtual compendium of all the reasons that big-market teams don't win every year, despite their obvious advantages.

As the postseason hits full swing, it's amusing watching the three richest teams in baseball scramble frantically to figure out why they lost despite their enormous resources. Well, it's amusing if you're not a fan of those teams.